Hawzah News Agency-Emphasizing on paying attention to the core of religion to access a world free of violence, the head of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in the opening ceremony of the 10th round of religious dialogue between Iran and Vatican before noon today said: "Extreme views about religion lead to distance from peace and the development of violence and extremism".

According to the Public Relations of Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, the 10th round of religious dialogue between the International Center for Interreligious Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization and Vaticans Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue was started in the place of Vaticans Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue before noon today (Tuesday, November 22) with the presence of Cardinal Jean Louis-Pierre Tauran, the President of Vaticans Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Dr. Abouzar Ebrahimi Torkaman, the head of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization and the head of Policy-Making Council of Religions, Hujjat al-Islam Rabbani, Iranian ambassador to the Vatican and Akbar Ghowli, Iranian cultural attaché in Italy.

The opening ceremony was started by the speech of Cardinal Jean Louis-Pierre Tauran, Deputy to the Pope, and the President of Vaticans Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue entitled "The neglect of the core of religion, the main reason for committing violence in the name of religion".

Paying No Attention to the Core of Religion Is Modern Ignorance

In the opening ceremony, referring to the center of his speech based on paying attention to the effect of ignoring the core of religion which leads to the development of violence and extremism in the name of religion as well as the ways to prevent it to access a world free from violence and terrorism, Dr. Ebrahimi Torkaman in his speech said: "Ignorance means paying no attention to anything that exists and in the logic of the Quran, ignorance of the core of religion is the reason for the lack of adherence to religion and as a result failure to do good deeds leading to modern ignorance".

The head of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization said that the problem in today’s world is modern ignorance and ignorance in awareness and emphasized: "The origin of modern ignorance is disbelief in the teachings of intellect and wisdom and the wisdom for having and becoming, and religion expects becoming from human meaning becoming aware, becoming vigilant, becoming just, becoming virtuous, becoming philanthropist, becoming righteous etc.".

Referring to misguided views about religion, he added: "Today, the way of extremists will not lead to becoming but lead to having power to prevent becoming and this struggle not only will not lead to peace, but also will increase the distance to peace and has led extremists to the delusion of deification, so that they consider themselves as the owner of humans life and such a thought is modern ignorance".

Another topics of the head of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization included self-absolutism as one of the manifestations of modern ignorance and respect for the views of others as the necessary condition for achieving peace and stability.

The member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution emphasized: "Self-absolute human knows himself God and considers his definitive judgments as sacred and thinks that their performance is duty and leaves no place to respect the views of others and in such situation peace has no place in the circle of self-absolute human thoughts".

He added: "Unfortunately, modern ignorance has been equipped by the weapon of knowledge and its rate of degradation has exceeded the primitive ignorance that was only limited to the one himself, the people around him and to some extent to a small region".

Emphasizing on the point that in recent years organized violence has increased in many parts of the world by using religious and ritual teachings, Dr. Ebrahimi Torkaman stated: "Extremists have resorted to sacralization of such violence and allow themselves a right to take the life of other people and thus such a view is as the result of modern ignorance and it should strive to prevent institutionalization and establishment of modern ignorance".

The member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution referred to the treatment of ignorance and added: "The most important feature of wisdom is to know the truth and recognize the right from wrong and the incidence of extremist thoughts in its worst shape which is formed by relying on incorrect interpretations of the religion revealing the necessity of paying attention to rationality more than ever".

He continued: "However, today extremisms are leaves on the branches of incorrect ideas and misconceptions which have grown on yesterday wrong religious thoughts indicating that how much wrong ideas of religious scholars can lead to wrong actions of their followers".

Dr. Ebrahimi Torkaman added: "Today sectarian - religious conflicts have become the most violent conflicts in the current era where wisdom is highly missed and there is a need for religious scholars and leaders to return to rationalization and intellectualization".

He continued: "The situation of the global terrorism is now so that the motivation of violence has been directed towards legitimizing to make the recognition of their crime hard. Unfortunately, today, relying on artificial satisfaction that is derived from the practice of religious orders they make the violence seem sacred and only intellect and wisdom can prevent the legitimization of these illegitimate motives and manifestation of criminal motives in the form of sacred incentives".

Referring to a narrative from the Prophet (PBUH) who said: All the goods are known by reason and he who does not have reason, has no religion, Dr. Ebrahimi Torkaman stated: "To make the ignorant aware, there is no need to use reason, but the cause is needed and ignorance is a type of disease whose cure should be found, hence the duty of religious scholars, leaders and influentials is to pay attention to removing ignorance from the thought and action of communities and explaining practical ways to get out of this situation".

At the end of his speech in this round of the religious dialogue Dr. Ebrahimi Torkaman suggested that a joint working group be formed consisting of the representatives of the International Center for Interreligious Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization and Vaticans Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to realize the achievements of the religious dialogue to present practical strategies for the results of these dialogues.

According to this report, figures present in this meeting included Dr. Abouzar Ebrahimi Torkaman, the head of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, Miguel Ayuso, the secretary of Vaticans Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Monsignor Khaled Akashe, the Secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims, and a number of prominent academic figures of Vatican and Iranian prominent figures such as Hujjat al-Islam Seyed Mehdi Khamooshi, the head of Islamic Propaganda Organization, Mohammad Javad Sahebi, the head of Academic Council of Iranian Secretariat of Religion Researchers, Hujjat al-Islam Mohammad Masjed Jamei, the member of Policy-Making Council of Religions, Hujjat al-Islam Abdol Hossein Khosrow Panah, the head of Institute For Research in Philosophy in Iran, Hujjat al-Eslam Dr. Morteza Javadi Amoli, the head of Esra International Institute of Revelatory Sciences, Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri, advisor to the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Hujjat al-Islam Abolghasem Alidoost Abarghouei, the faculty member of the Research Institute of Islamic Culture and Thought, Seyyed Yahya Yasrebi, the professor of Philosophy Department of Allameh Tabatabai University, and Hayedeh Ramezan Rostam Abadi, from Catholic Christianity Department of the International Center for Interreligious Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization.

It is noteworthy that the 10th round of religious dialogue between Iran and Vatican entitled "Extremism and Violence in the Name of Religion; which Approach to Religion?" is being held in Rome for two days (November 22 and 23).